Although I teach primarily high school students, this week I found myself thinking about Winnie the Pooh. It wasn’t his “hunny” or friends that keep coming to mind, but rather the words he said:
“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
I walked into my placement my first day and sat in a circle, met with skeptical eyes and timid voices. Quickly, students began to humor me, telling me about their projects. They embraced me graciously. Now, the very morning that I am writing this, I got to be the one to welcome my students into the room by name. (Maybe the cookies I brought to celebrate my last day helped, but that is a minor detail.) I will remember these kiddos, as they have certainly been written into the chapters of my future career and college experience. Their names–and outrageously funny remarks– are penned on my heart.
Alas, my assignment does not call for a sappy love letter to my Sophomore Block experience. Rather, I find my fingers darting to those keys of their own accord. Keeping to the prompt, I have been reminded this week of the childlike joy of my students.
In my humble opinion, we live in a world where kids are too often forced to grow up too quickly. Many of my students work jobs every single day after school or are already wise beyond their years. Too many of them have seen enough life for someone more than twice their age. However, in math this week, I rediscovered the secret to turning any teenager into a kid again: games.
I utilized both Blooket and Baamboozle in my Algebra 1 class, which led to the highest student engagement I’ve had during math instruction! During one game, we also used personal whiteboards, which allowed my quieter students to show me their answers privately, when they might not have participated otherwise. High engagement was the second best product of using games in the classroom.
The first? The joy my students expressed.
In both everyday conversations with students as well as games during class, I am reminded that even high schoolers need to be kids sometimes. As for the developmental implications, I am reminded of how thin the line is between adolescence and adulthood. Including nostalgic, perhaps “childlike,” activities breeds high-engagement with less pressure. There is one condition…
You have to sell it. Lucky for me, that isn’t hard, since I long to feel like a kid sometimes, too.
